No proposal to carve out separate Jammu Railway Division: DRM/FZP

Ferozepur: There is no proposal to carve out a separate Jammu division out of the Ferozepur Railway Division, a senior official said here today.

Anuj Prakash, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of Ferozepur Division of Northern Railways said there was no proposal to create the new division in reply to a query.

He said that though Ferozepur division, the largest in the country, should be shifted to Jalandhar for managing operations in better manner, there was no proposal for its relocation.

Inspecting railway infrastructure, including tracks, buildings and level crossings, Prakash said all 312 unmanned railway crossing in the division would be eliminated in a phased manner within three years.

“From 357, the number of unmanned crossings has decreased to 312 and out of these 89 will be eliminated by March 31 next”, he said.

He said there was a 2 per cent increase in freight this year compared to the previous year.

On the proposal to lay a new 25.47 km long Patti-Firozpur rail link, he said it would soon be sanctioned by the Ministry of Railways.

With this proposed track, the distance between northern states with Punjab and trade capitals of Gujarat and Maharashtra will get considerably reduced.

On the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramula rail link project, he said that the work was halted because of law and order issue in Jammu and Kashmir.

“Our tracks had been damaged there and the work, which was already going behind schedule, was getting further delayed”, he said.